Our Story

I feel like it’s been a century since I’ve done a family update.  Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve ever done an introduction post about our family because for whatever reason writing strictly about myself kind of makes me cringe.  I might butcher this but here it goes!

Ben and I got married when I was 19 and he was 22, so young!  We had known each other since I was 14 so it wasn’t something rushed but it’s like they say, when you know, you know.  We were both going to school and he quickly switched careers from becoming a Physicians Assistant to a photographer.  At the time I was thinking, “exccccuuuuse me!?”.  I was a little freaked out by the change but it was the best thing for us.  Ben has always been so incredibly creative and when he found his passion he ran with it.  I became a Physical Therapist Assistant and passed my boards exam while Milo was in my belly.

Back when we were first married and I had blonde hair

We had Milo 4 years after being married and man, was she the best baby, ever!  I’m not just saying that because I think she’s the coolest, she literally was the easiest baby.  She slept through the night at three months old and didn’t wake up crying, ever.  Milo transitioned from her crib to her bed like it was nothing, she potty trained easily and she was just an all around happy baby who loved nothing more than to shake her booty side to side every time music came on.

I then worked as a Physical Therapist Assistant for a little less than a year when we decided we would make the move from Arizona to California.  I had never lived away from Arizona and my family so the whole thing gave me crazy anxiety.  I started having extreme chest pains and didn’t sleep well at night all because of the idea of jumping out of my comfort zone.  I’m the type of person that has to have everything in order, everything planned out and our life pretty much as stable as possible.  Writing that out, it sounds kind of boring and lame.  But that’s just who I’ve always been.  My husband is the complete opposite, he’s ok with change and accepts it with open arms whereas my little brain goes into full on panic mode.  We’re really the perfect pair, if you can’t tell.  I think we make a nice balance because he teaches me not to stress about the little things and I teach him to make plans when necessary.

It’s funny to look back at it now because I think moving away and experiencing something new as a young couple was the best thing for us and our little family.  My anxiety kind of resolved itself over time and living in San Clemente, California will always be one of the most memorable and special times in my life.  We decided to move there because 90% of my husbands photography jobs were there and he was traveling there almost every week.  We had both loved the idea of living in California and I truly met the most amazing life-long friends while we were there.  I think Ben and I can both say we grew up a lot in the time we were there.  I think it’s mostly because we kind of discovered our relationship a little more by not having any family or friends around.

After being in California for almost a year, I found out I was pregnant with Ruckus.  Ben and I both agreed that we should move back to Arizona to buy our first home where we’d have something a little more “stable” (see, it’s the planner in me that probably suckered us back there).

I had baby Ruckus and this guy pretty much came out as a tank.  He was 9 pounds 10 oz and had the biggest head.  Of course, being his mom, I thought it was perfect and didn’t see what everyone else did.  One time a kid walked past and said, “holy cow, look at the head on that kid!” to which I quickly replied, “excuse me!?”.  See, I didn’t see it but now when I look back at pictures, I do.  Ruck was the sweetest little guy, he was always so happy and was so tough given all of his challenges.  Poor thing was always sick.  He had really bad allergies, asthma, acid reflux and at 11 months old he had to have surgery on his neck because he had a lymph node that was infected with staff infection.  How does that even happen?!  Oh, and one time I thought I was being a great mom by making him scrambled eggs when I quickly found out he is severely allergic and had to call 911.  Luckily, he was OK and now we know not to leave the house without his EpiPen. Despite it all, he was such an insanely good baby!

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While we were in Arizona, we ended up finding what we call our “Palm Springs Dream Home” and completely remodeled the inside.  The house wasn’t huge, it wasn’t lavish, but it was our first and we were able to bring our vision for it into action together.  We tore out walls, we added concrete in the two step-down rooms, redid all the floors, cabinets, lighting, basically everything.  This house was the best and one of the main perks about it was that it had a big pool with a diving board.  Living in Arizona, a pool is almost mandatory during those hot summer days.  We would wake up every morning and go swim in the backyard, put the kids down for naps and go back out to swim once they woke up.  We pretty much lived in the pool while we were in that house.

After six months of being there Ben got a job offer at Backcountry.com and it was pretty much a no brainer.  A job where Ben would be taking photos of snowboarding, rock climbing, base jumping, fly fishing, surfing, etc.  What dude would say no to that?  We moved up to Utah and rented a home in this cute new neighborhood where we got to know and love each one of our neighbors.  We had been looking to buy a home but couldn’t find one that we really loved.  One day I got a text from my neighbor across the street that said, “Sidney is moving to Alabama and was saying she was going to be selling her home!”.  It had absolutely nothing to do with Sidney herself moving but everything to do with the fact that I had been obsessed with this white house on the corner and never in a million years thought we’d have the opportunity to buy it.  They had only been in the home for a few months after having it built so I think we were all surprised to hear they were leaving.  After getting that text, I quickly put on shoes, ran outside and walked straight over to Sidney’s house basically telling her I wanted to buy it.  Long story short, we did!  We moved in about two months later and are so happy to be in the same neighborhood and not only that but on the same street we had been renting on.  Not to mention, we absolutely love the house.  Thanks Sidney!  Haha.

We’ve been in Utah for a little over a year now and I’m not going to lie, it’s been amazing but has also had its challenges.  Coming from Arizona and living in California, I had no idea what to do or how to handle the snow.  I had to ask people how to properly dress your kids when its 10 degrees outside!  I know that might seem silly but I actually had Milo’s school teachers sit me down to tell me what kind of shoes to put on her and what kind of clothes to dress her in.  All I’ve ever had to worry about is a long-sleeved t-shirt or a short-sleeved t shirt!  Guys, I can officially say that I’m doing better and I think I pretty much got the gist of it, but it wasn’t easy.

I found out I was pregnant about 10 weeks ago and we are all so excited for another baby!  Pretty crazy to think that Ben and I will be outnumbered by these little munchkins but we can’t wait.  Is anyone else like me where you wish pregnancy took about the same amount of time as it does for a dog?  60 days sounds wayyyyyy better than 9 months, just sayin’!

If you’ve read this far, I’m freaking impressed.  I thought for sure I would have lost you in the first paragraph but I’m so happy you tuned in and are insanely educated on the life of us, the Christensen’s!

Until next time.

Paige